Principles of Naturopathic Medicine

Naturopathic medicine recognizes the body’s inherent ability, which is ordered and intelligent, to heal itself. Naturopathic doctors act to identify and remove obstacles to recovery, and to facilitate and augment this healing ability.

Naturopathic doctors treat each individual by taking into account physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental and social factors. Since total health also includes spiritual health, naturopathic doctors encourage individuals to pursue their personal spiritual path.

Naturopathic doctors emphasize disease prevention, assessment of risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease and making appropriate interventions to prevent illness. Naturopathic medicine strives to create a healthy world in which humanity may thrive.

Wellness follows the establishment and maintenance of optimum health and balance. Wellness is a state of being healthy, characterized by positive emotion, thought and action. Wellness is inherent in everyone, no matter what dis-ease(s) is/are being experienced. If wellness is really recognized and experienced by an individual, it will more quickly heal a given dis-ease than direct treatment of the dis-ease alone. (This principle was adopted by Bastyr University and added to the six principles.)

Naturopathic Therapeutic Order

Establish the Conditions for Health: Sleep, good nutrition, clean water, sunshine, nature, and a healthy spirit are needed for us to be balanced and well. The first step in returning to health is to remove those entities that disturb health, most commonly: poor diet, digestive disturbances, inappropriate stress levels, spiritual disharmony, among others. Naturopaths identify and remove the obstacles to cure in order to establish the conditions for health. This allows additional therapeutics to have the most beneficial effects possible.

Correct Structural Integrity: Physical modalities such as spinal manipulation, massage therapy, craniosacral therapy, are utilized to improve and maintain skeletal and musculature integrity and keep the nervous system firing appropriately.

Use Natural Substances to Restore and Regenerate: Naturopathic Medicine’s primary objective is to restore health, not to treat pathology. However, when a specific pathology must be addressed NDs employ safe, effective, natural substances that do not add toxicity, nor burden, to the already diseased body.

Use Pharmacological Agents for Pathology: When necessary pharmaceutical drugs are used to suppress symptoms. This, however, does not allow for the removal of the fundamental disturbing factors, nor the improvement of the underlying terrain. There are situations that warrant conventional medical treatments and therapies. In these cases, naturopaths refer to an allopathic practitioner to prescribe pharmaceuticals.

Use High Force, Invasive Modalities: Surgery, Radiation, Chemotherapy: When life, limb or function must be preserved NDs refer to Medical Doctors who are expertly trained in these arenas. However, there are complementary, or supportive, therapies that Naturopathy can provide to decrease side effects and often increase the effectiveness of these invasive procedures. As Dr. John Bastyr said towards the end of his retirement, “Do what works.”